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catherine_wilson_2

:eek: Help urgent advice needed!!We are hoping to return to the uk after living abroad (non eec) for 14years. We sold our business partnership and our house and we're hoping to have enough to buy a home in the uk and maybe a small car. We've always worked and my husband hopes to find some work on our return but maybe difficult as he is 53yrs old and unqualified.I am able to retire next year at 60yrs old but only qualify for a small pension as not enough nat. ins. contributions eg. about £28 a week as per pension forecast so our budget to buy a flat is around £120,000 of course we've allowed enough money for necessary essentials of furniture and a cheap small car,leaving us with savings of about £4.500 - £5.000. What worries us is that my husband might not find work immediately on return, and taking into account of groundrent, leasehold and insurance,council tax etc. we wondered if we would be entitled to any help or benefits. I know people might think why should we be entitled, after having a life abroad, but we did work about 30years between us in the uk and our savings were in the uk and taxed. Any advice would be appreciated.

Conor_3

Good luck is all I'll say. Benefit entitlement is based on the last 2 years national insurance contributions. At best you may get income support but this depends on how much you've got in savings. Your savings being in the UK and taxed is irrelevent. Buying a flat for £120k and then claiming benefits might not help you much.

TBH though, there's so much unskilled work with temping agencies, I'll be surprised if he's unemployed more than a week.

Just a heads up. You have to prove your eligibility to work in the UK nowadays. That means UK passport/full birth certificate and proof of NI number.

seven-day-weekend

I think you have to pass the 'habitual residency test'. This is to show that you are not just returning e.g to get medical treatment and then returning abroad.

I'm not sure what it entails, but it means showing you have maintained links with your home country - in your case maintaining your bank accounts and buying a house would I think count towards this.

I think if you pass this test you will be entitled to things like Council Tax Benefit and maybe Jobseekers' Allowance while you look for jobs. If not, you will have to wait six months.

We'll be in a similar position ourselves in a few years, except we won't need to claim benefits as we have pensions, but will need to prove it for medical care. Luckily we still have a house in the UK, bank accounts, a dentist and are registered as non-resident voters.

I'll see if I can find a link to the habitual residency test.

(edited to add : http://www.colchester.gov.uk/Info_page_two_pic_2_det.asp?art_id=5914&sec_id=1560

This is from Colchester Borough Council but I expect it is similar throughout the UK. One interesting point is it says if you are a returning |british Citizen you almost certainly will NOT FAIL the test.:j :T

That's good news for us too!)

catherine_wilson_2

Hi again, sorry I am a definate newbie, taking a while to get the hang of posting, as you can see posted twice and mixed up reply.Certainly confused but will get there in the end, I HOPE!! Thanks for the advice so far and I must admit we didn't know about the 26week rule that Jules mentioned. Bajangal, did you wait this long when you came back from Norway?
Also we have since heard of a rule called DEPRIVATION OF CAPITAL which concerns us a bit. Would the £120.000 we had earmarked for a home be classed as savings,thus depriving the DWP of capital we could have used to live on,because I'm sure that if I lived in the UK and applied for any benefits with £120.000 in the bank, I would get the short shrift and rightly so. So does anybody know if we can use that money to buy a home and still apply for benefits if needed?